Wireless mobile communication technology uses various standards and protocols to transmit data between a transmission station and a wireless mobile device. Some wireless devices communicate using orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) combined with a desired digital modulation scheme via a physical layer. Standards and protocols that use OFDM include the third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 standard (e.g., 802.16e, 802.16m), which is commonly known to industry groups as WiMAX (Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access), and the IEEE 802.11 standard, which is commonly known to industry groups as WiFi.
In 3GPP radio access network (RAN) LTE systems, the transmission station can be a combination of Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node Bs (also commonly denoted as evolved Node Bs, enhanced Node Bs, eNodeBs, or eNBs) and Radio Network Controllers (RNCs), which communicates with the wireless mobile device, known as a user equipment (UE). A downlink (DL) transmission can be a communication from the transmission station (or eNodeB) to the wireless mobile device (or UE), and an uplink (UL) transmission can be a communication from the wireless mobile device to the transmission station.
In a downlink transmission, the transmission station can communicate with a single wireless mobile device with a unicast subframe using a unicast service. A unicast delivery can have a one-to-one relationship, referring to one message to one mobile device. Alternatively, the transmission station can communicate with a plurality of wireless mobile devices with a multicast\broadcast single-frequency network (MBSFN) subframe using a multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS). The transport multicast and broadcast traffic in a MBMS can have a one-to-many relationship, referring to one message to many mobile devices.
Reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiments illustrated, and specific language will be used herein to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended.